Pope Benedict XVI's Letter to China was posted today on the Vatican website in Chinese, English, French and Italian, together with an explanatory note and a declaration. The explanatory note and declaration provide short explanations of the Pope's reasons for writing and his basic message, possibly in recognition that reporters and others might appreciate the background information and a concise explanation of the Pope's intentions in writing.
At the conclusion of the letter, he proposed May 24, the memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, venerated in Shanghai, as a world day of prayer in union with the Church in China, asking that "the Catholics of the whole world – in particular those who are of Chinese origin – will demonstrate their fraternal solidarity and solicitude for you, asking the Lord of history for the gift of perseverance in witness, in the certainty that your sufferings past and present for the Holy Name of Jesus and your intrepid loyalty to his Vicar on earth will be rewarded, even if at times everything can seem a failure."
The Accompanying Declaration
Here is the Declaration in its entirety, with today's date:
"By means of his Letter, which is made public today, Pope Benedict XVI wishes to express his love for the Catholic community in China and his closeness to it.
"From the text of the Papal document two basic attitudes are clear: on the one hand, deep spiritual affection for all Catholics in China and cordial esteem for the Chinese people, and, on the other, an earnest appeal to the perennial principles of the Catholic tradition and the Second Vatican Council in the ecclesiological sphere. It is, therefore, a pressing invitation to charity, unity and truth.
"The Letter is directed to the Church in China and deals with eminently religious questions, responding to precise queries which have been addressed for some time to the Holy See by Chinese Bishops and priests. It is not, therefore, a political document, nor, much less, an indictment of the government authorities, although it does not ignore the well-known difficulties which the Church in China must daily tackle."The Holy Father recalls the "original plan" which Christ had for his Church and which he entrusted to the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops. In this light, he takes into consideration various problems of the Church in China which emerged during the past fifty years. From this "plan" he also draws inspiration and formulates guidelines to tackle and resolve, in a spirit of communion and truth, the said problems.
"In the Letter, Benedict XVI declares himself fully available and open to a serene and constructive dialogue with the civic authorities in order to find a solution to the various problems concerning the Catholic community, and to reach the desired normalization of relations between the Holy See and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, in the certainty that Catholics, by freely professing their faith and by giving generous witness of life, contribute also, as good citizens, to the good of the Chinese people."
The Explanatory Note
The Explanatory Note accompanying the Pope's letter is dated May 27. It explains that the two basic thoughts of the letter are the Pope's passion for charity and his passion for truth. It then sets the letter in the context of the history of the last 50 years of the Church in China, offers a short explanation of what prompted the Pope to write this letter, and then offers summaries of the letter and its tone that are more extensive than the short declaration given above. Recognizing that the Pope's letter would attract media attention, the Vatican clearly made its best effort to avoid the risk that a mistranslation or erroneous headline might prompt an international incident in any way comparable to the misunderstanding of his lecture in Regensburg last year. While Benedict XVI's letter addresses Chinese bishops, priests, religious and the faithful with an understanding of the history and complexity of their situation, the Vatican thus also made extensive efforts to make the letter understandable to those who would not otherwise understand its context or theological and practical implications.
The context includes persecutions dating back to the 1950's and government bodies that have attempted to authorize ordinations without papal consent. In the 1980's, China saw a new growth of religious freedom, new churches were built, and the faith spread. However, differences arose, ranging from clandestine ordinations of those who wanted to resist government control of the Church, to efforts by those ordained under state authority to subsequently seek to be accepted into the communion of the Church. Many of the latter were accepted in view of the complexity of the situation. Since the 1990's, Chinese Catholics have sought precise instructions from the Vatican in how to address their situation and their conflicts. Pope Benedict called a meeting held January 19-20, 2007, including the participation of some Chinese participants. At the conclusion of the meeting, he decided to prepare a letter addressing the situation.
The explanation and declaration clarify that the intent of the letter is pastoral and not political. It sets out principles of Catholic ecclesiology and offers guidelines for the life of the Church in the context of the difficulties it faces in China. The role of a bishop derives from that understanding of the nature of the Church. The Pope's letter expresses hope for a dialogue leading to the eventual normalization of relations between the Chinese government and the Church, with progress toward agreement on the selection of Chinese bishops.
The letter revokes all earlier directives to the Church in China. Changes in the situation there make it possible for the Chinese to follow the general canonical norms, seeking Vatican guidance when necessary.
The Letter
The letter itself is more than 11,000 words with 56 footnotes and a table of contents at the end. Part One discusses the factual situation facing the Chinese Catholics and the theological principles governing their situation. Part Two discusses specific pastoral problems, offering guidelines as to each of them. It is dated on the Solemnity of Pentecost, May 27, 2007.
Pope Benedict went to considerable effort to emphasize his admiration for Chinese culture and to identify Chinese values that are consistent with the values of Christianity. Although not expressly mentioned in the letter, the extent of the discussion reflects the basic principle of Christian thinking that respects the cultural contexts in which Christianity exists. Pope Benedict has mentioned that in his previous theological writings, drawing from the efforts of the first and second century evangelists to present Christianity in the context of Roman culture, and the efforts of Pope/Saint Gregory the Great in the sixth century to present Christianity in England in the context of English culture (See the essay "Truth - Tolerance - Freedom" in Truth and Tolerance
[Note added July 7: Pope Benedict XVI has also written that the culture transmitted by the Church enriches those cultures. In the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum," Pope Benedict mentioned St. Gregory the Great as one of those popes "who made every effort to ensure that the new peoples of Europe received both the Catholic faith and the treasures of worship and culture that had been accumulated by the Romans in preceding centuries. He commanded that the form of the sacred liturgy as celebrated in Rome (concerning both the Sacrifice of Mass and the Divine Office) be conserved. He took great concern to ensure the dissemination of monks and nuns who, following the Rule of St. Benedict, together with the announcement of the Gospel illustrated with their lives the wise provision of their Rule that 'nothing should be placed before the work of God.' In this way the sacred liturgy, celebrated according to the Roman use, enriched not only the faith and piety but also the culture of many peoples."]
Quoting John Paul II's message from 2001, he expressed hope for overcoming misunderstandings by a dialogue leading to "concrete forms of communication and cooperation" between the Vatican and the People's Republic of China, the normalization of diplomatic relations with time and mutual good will.
He quoted his Encyclical of last year in discussing the role of the Catholic Church in connection with the various States in which it exists:
Likewise, therefore, the Catholic Church which is in China does not have a mission to change the structure or administration of the State; rather, her mission is to proclaim Christ to men and women, as the Saviour of the world, basing herself – in carrying out her proper apostolate – on the power of God. As I recalled in my Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, ‘‘The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply''.
In a discussion of the communion of particular churches and the universal Church, the following is a portion of the Pope's explanation of Catholic ecclesiology and the role of a bishop within the Catholic Church as mentioned briefly in the Declaration quoted above:
As you know, the profound unity which binds together the particular Churches found in China, and which likewise places them in intimate communion with all the other particular Churches throughout the world, has its roots not only in the same faith and in a common Baptism, but above all in the Eucharist and in the episcopate. Likewise, the unity of the episcopate, of which ‘‘the Roman Pontiff, as the Successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation'', continues down the centuries through the apostolic succession and is the foundation of the identity of the Church in every age with the Church built by Christ on Peter and on the other Apostles.
Catholic doctrine teaches that the Bishop is the visible source and foundation of unity in the particular Church entrusted to his pastoral ministry. But in every particular Church, in order that she may be fully Church, there must be present the supreme authority of the Church, that is to say, the episcopal College together with its Head, the Roman Pontiff, and never apart from him. Therefore the ministry of the Successor of Peter belongs to the essence of every particular Church ‘‘from within''. Moreover, the communion of all the particular Churches in the one Catholic Church, and hence the ordered hierarchical communion of all the Bishops, successors of the Apostles, with the Successor of Peter, are a guarantee of the unity of the faith and life of all Catholics. It is therefore indispensable, for the unity of the Church in individual nations, that every Bishop should be in communion with the other Bishops, and that all should be in visible and concrete communion with the Pope. . . .
Communion is the fruit and demonstration of that love which springs from the heart of the Eternal Father and is poured out upon us through the Spirit whom Jesus gives us (cf. Rom 5:5), to make us all ‘one heart and one soul' (Acts 4:32). It is in building this communion of love that the Church appears as ‘sacrament', as the ‘sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the human race.'
The sources cited, in footnotes, in support of those principles included the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, sections 23 and 26, and a Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of the Church understood as Communion by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during the time when Benedict XVI was its head, Communionis Notio (28 May 1992), sections 11-14.
He also quoted, in a footnote, his recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (22 February 2007), 6: ‘‘The Church's faith is essentially a eucharistic faith, and it is especially nourished at the table of the Eucharist. Faith and the sacraments are two complementary aspects of ecclesial life. Awakened by the preaching of God's word, faith is nourished and grows in the grace-filled encounter with the Risen Lord which takes place in the sacraments: ‘faith is expressed in the rite, while the rite reinforces and strengthens faith.' For this reason, the Sacrament of the Altar is always at the heart of the Church's life: ‘thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is reborn ever anew!' The more lively the eucharistic faith of the People of God, the deeper is its sharing in ecclesial life in steadfast commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to his disciples. The Church's very history bears witness to this. Every great reform has in some way been linked to the rediscovery of belief in the Lord's eucharistic presence among his people''.
Before the synod on the Eucharist, the published sources for the thinking of Benedict XVI on the issues of ecclesiology and communion, and still helpful in addition to the apostolic exhortation, included Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today
From that understanding of the nature of the Church, the Holy Father appealed for pardon and reconciliation within the Church in China, quoting his predecessor Pope John Paul II. He then called for the Church in China to live in truth and charity with the State, drawing from Scripture and the Vatican II documents concerning the proper role of Church and State and their interaction with each other. Speaking of Jesus, he said "His Kingdom does not establish its claims by force, but is established by bearing witness to and listening to the truth and it grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the Cross, draws people to himself (cf. Jn 12:32)'." (drawing from Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Liberty Dignitatis Humanae, section 11, and from his own General Audience of Wednesday 5 April 2006).
Therefore, he concluded that an individual bishop and a legitimate national council of bishops may lead the Church under their apostolic authority, and also stated that independence, self-management and democratic administration of the Church is incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
Addressing the Chinese Episcopate, the Pope began by drawing a distinction between the role of the ordained clergy and the role of the lay faithful:
In the Church – the People of God – only the sacred ministers, duly ordained after sufficient instruction and formation, may exercise the office of ‘‘teaching, sanctifying and governing''. The lay faithful may, with a canonical mission from the Bishop, perform an ancillary ecclesial ministry of handing on the faith.
On that basis, he considered the difficulty arising when State agencies made up of persons who are not ordained, and sometimes not baptized, undertake to govern the Church and to appoint bishops. Where clandestine ordinations have taken place in China, the Holy Father noted that this is not a normal condition, but rather one that exists amid suffering. He expressed a hope that those validly ordained clergy who were ordained in secret will be recognized by the civil authorities. Similarly, some bishops selected by the State and later legitimized by the Church have not always openly acknowledged their legitimization, leading to confusion among the faithful. The Holy Father stated that it is indispensable that such clergy bring their legitimization into the open with increasing signs of their full communion with the See of St. Peter.
Conversely, any bishops appointed by the State who have not been legitimized by the Holy See are to be considered illegitimate although validly ordained. The Bishops Conference of an individual nation is made up of the legitimate bishops, which cannot be subject to any civil authority in matters of faith.
The Pope thus made the following statement about the nature of the present College of Catholic Bishops of China:
In the light of the principles expounded above, the present College of Catholic Bishops of China cannot be recognized as an Episcopal Conference by the Apostolic See: the "clandestine'' Bishops, those not recognized by the Government but in communion with the Pope, are not part of it; it includes Bishops who are still illegitimate, and it is governed by statutes that contain elements incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
In Part II of the letter, he considered questions related to the celebration and concelebration of the Eucharist, the remaining restrictions on religious freedom that remain despite more openness in recent years, formation of the clergy, the "new evangelization", the need for careful discernment and religious formation for aspirants to the priesthood and religious life (including "a more solid formation with regard to the human, spiritual, philosophical-theological and pastoral aspects, to be carried out in seminaries and religious institutes"), the needs of the family, the need for a serious period of catechumenate for Christian initiation of adults, and the missionary nature of the Church always and everywhere.
In conclusion, the Holy Father announced May 24 as a day for prayer for the Church in China, as the memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated at a Marian shrine in Shanghai.
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